Apple sent samples of flexible iPhones to its manufacturing partners
Rumors about preparing for the release of the flexible screen iPhone have been circulating on the web for quite some time. Sources in China said today that Apple has begun sending prototypes of foldable smartphones to Foxconn for testing. It is assumed that these devices will be released in 2022.
Citing sources in the supply chain, the Economic Daily News reports that testing includes evaluating OLED and Micro-LED prototypes to determine which option will perform best. The choice of the display type determines the subsequent assembly methods of the devices. It is also reported that Apple asked Foxconn to evaluate smartphone hinges in a test that includes 100,000 phone opening and closing cycles. It is worth noting here that similar tests for laptops include from 20 to 30 thousand such cycles.
The report does not contain any information about the design of the smartphone, but it is reported that the supplier of the display panels is Samsung, which confirms previous rumors that Apple ordered samples of matrices from the Korean company.
The first rumors that Apple was working on a foldable smartphone appeared back in 2016 when the company was granted a number of patents for the design of such a device. At one time, analyst Jon Prosser (Jon Prosser) assumed that the folding iPhone will receive two separate displays, like the Microsoft Surface Duo, and not a continuous flexible matrix like the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
